


Read into It

by awriterofthings



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:20:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25054543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awriterofthings/pseuds/awriterofthings
Summary: Everything that goes down doesn’t happen for another day, giving Ellie and Joel a chance to start making amends.or....Dina kisses Ellie and somehow Joel is the one Ellie ends up talking to about it.
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 173





	Read into It

Ellie was lying in bed looking up at the ceiling as the events of last night replayed in her mind. Dina had kissed her. Like, _really,_ kissed her. She still couldn’t comprehend how things even got to that point. She’d be lying if she said that she’d never thought about it. Dina always made her smile and she was one of her closest friends in Jackson. She never thought her crush would actually go anywhere, though. She always thought Dina and Jesse would keep doing whatever it is they were doing. 

Shit. Jesse.

Ellie wasn’t sure if he’d be upset with her but she really didn’t want drama ruining their friendship. Ellie rubbed a hand over her forehead. She was thinking too much. Dina probably didn’t even mean anything by the kiss.

A knock sounded at the door and Ellie glanced at her alarm clock. “Oh, shit,” she muttered as she got up. She made her way towards the door and opened it to find, Jesse. “Hey, sorry. I totally overslept. Just give me a minute and I’ll get dressed.”

Jesse placed his hand on the door way, leaning casually as he spoke to Ellie. “Patrol’s tomorrow. I’m here because Maria asked me to check in on you. I heard you had quite a night after I left.”

“I…” Ellie paused for a moment, unsure of how to go about having this conversation. “She kissed me. It was just Dina being Dina. She didn’t mean anything by it.”

Jesse frowned. “I was talking about your fight with Seth. Wait… you kissed Dina?”

_Shit, shit shit._ “Oh. I thought this was-,”

“We’re broken up one week and you’re making a move on my girl?”

“No…She was probably just trying to make you jealous. I didn’t…I would never. Oh, fuck, this is awkward.”

Jesse grinned in amusement. “I’m messing with you, man. I don’t care. Get dressed. Let’s have breakfast and enjoy our semi-free day.”

Ellie frowned. “Semi-free?”

“Just because we’re not patrolling doesn’t mean there’s not shit to do,” Jesse stated. “I’ve got to clean weapons.” He smiled and added, “And you and Dina have to check for any security breaches.”

Ellie folded her arms across her chest. “Yeah? And who made that pairing?”

Jesse grinned. “Just thought you two would want to talk.”

Dropped her arms down to her side. “Does that mean you’re not upset? Are we-,”

“We’re good,” Jesse promised her. “Now get ready for your date.”

Ellie internally groaned. “You’re the worst.” She went to close the door but Jesse reached a hand out to stop it just as Joel walked up.

“What are you doing here?” Ellie asked, dryly.

Jesse looked between the two before gesturing behind him. “I’ll catch you later, Ellie. Have fun.”

Before Ellie could protest, Jesse turned to leave, nodding a greeting at Joel. Once alone, Joel shifted on his feet while waiting to be invited in.

“I don’t have time to talk,” Ellie began.

“This won’t take long,” Joel promised.

Ellie waited a beat, simply staring at the man. He looked tired. She stepped aside to let him in and then closed the door, leaning her back against it. “What’s up?”

“About last night,” Joel began. “I-,”

“It’s fine,” Ellie cut him off. “It was a strange night.”

“Well, I just wanted to say that I like Dina. She’s got a good head on her shoulders.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I, um… I kinda spoke to her this morning.”

Ellie’s eyes widened. “What do you mean you spoke to her?”

Joel shrugged. “I just wanted to know what her intentions are.”

“Oh my god,” Ellie groaned. “Joel, Dina’s not my girlfriend.”

“Okay, whatever you two are, I just wanted to make sure you’d be okay. I know you were sad about Cat for a bit.”

Ellie’s brows furrowed. “You knew about Cat?”

“I had my suspicions,” Joel answered. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I figured you didn’t want to talk about it so I left it alone.”

Ellie bit at the inside of her cheek definitely wanting to be on patrol rather than deal with this awkward conversation. “Well, Dina’s just… Dina.”

Joel studied Ellie for a moment. “But you like her, right?”

Ellie’s cheeks burned with embarrassment as she moved to grab her boots. “I should probably head out. I have a lot to do today.”

“Right.” Joel moved toward the door and paused with his hand on the doorknob. “Ellie… I’m here for you when you’re ready to talk about… anything.”

“I know. I’ll see you later.”

Joel left and Ellie ran her hands over her face. How was she going to face Dina now that Joel had made things even more awkward? Sighing, she continued to get ready and braced herself for whatever the day held for her.

Ellie took her time getting dressed, not quite ready to face Dina yet. When she couldn’t drag her feet any longer, she went out to find the other girl, which led her to the playground where she found Dina having a snowball fight with the younger kids. She took a moment to admire Dina in her carefree state and couldn’t help but smile. She didn’t know how Dina had gone through so much but could still manage to produce enough joy to share it with those around her.

“Hey, Dina,” Ellie began. “Can I talk to you?”

Dina looked surprised to see Ellie but quickly ceased her game to go talk to her. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Ellie said, shyly. “Um, I just wanted to say sorry about running off last night.”

“Oh—that’s, it’s okay. I totally get it. I just, I felt bad.”

“Why?”

“‘Cause I started the whole thing.”

“I just, I shouldn’t have kissed you in front of all those people and I-.”

“You were drunk. It’s fine.

“Well still, I don’t want you to think-,”

Ellie waved her off. “No, I’m not reading into it or anything.”

Dina laughed lightly. “Know what I love about you? How you let me finish my sentences.” Dina knocked some snow off the fence surrounding the playground. “Look,” she began, making sure Ellie’s gaze met hers before she continued, “maybe I want you to read into it.”

Ellie was taken aback and couldn’t really figure out how she should respond. “Um… I…what?”

A snowball soared through the air, pelting Ellie and saving her from the conversation. “Ow!”

Dina turned to the kids. “What the fuck?”

“I’m not even playing!” Ellie pointed out.

“‘Cause you’re a chicken! One of the kids yelled.

Ellie rolled her eyes. “I hate this kid so much.”

Dina nodded towards him. “You want to fuck him up?”

Ellie glanced behind her as if Jesse would be there to scold her for wasting time when they had things to do. She looked back at Dina, wanting to spend some time having fun before dealing with the real world. “Yeah, I do,” she said before joining Dina inside the playground.

Ellie and Dina had been walking around the perimeter of Jackson for a good few minutes now but neither had said much. Ellie had a lot of questions but wasn’t sure how to ask them and Dina was just waiting for Ellie to relax.

As they continued to walk, Ellie spotted a broken fence board. “There,” she pointed to the fence and Dina marked it on the diagram of Jackson that she was carrying.

“So,” Dina began, taking this opportunity to start a conversation. “You’re quieter than usual. Has being in my presence stunned you into silence?”

“Just staying focused,” Ellie stated. “Can’t miss anything or we’ll hear about it from Maria.”

“I have faith in our multi-tasking abilities,” Dina said as she fell back into step with Ellie. “Did I mention that Seth apologized to me?”

Ellie scoffed at hearing the name. “Bet Maria made him.”

“Oh, she for sure did.”

Ellie began to pick at her fingernails. “I hope he didn’t get to you.”

Dina let out a breathy laugh. “Seth? No way. In one ear and out the other with that man.” She placed a hand on Ellie’s shoulder. “Hey, no one really thinks like him anymore. He’s just old and set in his ways. That’s what Tommy said at least.”

Ellie scratched at her cheek. “Yeah, I think people have more important things to worry about nowadays… like not getting their face bitten off.”

Dina smiled. “That is a very important thing to avoid.” She bumped Ellie’s shoulder with her own. “Don’t go getting that face of yours bitten off, okay? I like seeing it.”

“I’ll try my best to keep it in place,” Ellie said, relaxing a bit now that they were falling into their usual banter. “So what are you doing later?”

“A bunch of us are going to sneak out after curfew to go sledding,” Dina answered. “What about you?”

“I was thinking of watching a movie with Joel.”

“Maybe we can meet up after.”

“Yeah, we can do that.” Ellie wouldn’t say no to more time with Dina.

“So,” Dina began. “You and Joel— you two okay?”

Ellie shrugged. “It’s complicated.”

“I know all about complicated,” Dina stated.

“You and Jesse?” Ellie asked. “Do you miss him?”

“I love him and I love his family, but we were never meant to last.” To make sure she was being very clear, Dina added. “We’re done.”

“Cool,” Ellie said, unsure of what else to say.

Dina lifted a brow at her. “Cool?”

“I mean… not cool- just… it’s great that you two are both being mature about it.” Ellie gestured ahead of them. “We should probably hurry up and get this done. I’m sure there’s other stuff Maria will want us to do.”

Dina linked her arm with Ellie’s. “I think she’ll appreciate our thoroughness.”

Ellie tried not to blush at the close contact as the two continued their task. 

It was around six o’clock at night and Ellie was back at her place, feeling refreshed after her shower. She had fun patrolling with Dina and hated that she had been too much of a nervous wreck to ask what the kiss meant. Dina hadn’t even brought up her conversation with Joel so Ellie didn’t either. 

Sighing, she stood up from the edge of her bed and grabbed a DVD from the table before making her way towards the door. She needed to stop thinking about Dina for now. They had plans to meet up later, just the two of them. That would’ve been fine before, but now butterflies accompanied the thought of it and Ellie just found that stupid. “Stop being weird,” she muttered to herself.

Ellie made her way through the fresh snow and after a few minutes, found herself outside of Joel’s door. Taking a breath, she knocked and waited patiently.

Joel appeared at the door and it was obvious he was surprised to see her. “Ellie,” he began. “Is everything okay? Is Seth bothering you?” He moved to step out of his house but Ellie held up a hand.

“Whoa,” she said, slightly amused. “I’m fine.” She held up the DVD. “I thought maybe we could watch Curtis and Viper 2. I mean, if you’re not busy.”

Joel smiled softly. “I’m not busy at all.” He let Ellie in and went to work straightening up a bit. “Heard you checked for security breaches today. How’d that go?”

Ellie moved to the DVD player. “It was… I don’t know. Dina was flirty but that’s just her personality and I probably shouldn’t think anything of it.” At the end of her short rant, Ellie realized what she had said and quickly added, “Uh, there were like two issues but nothing big. Pretty sure someone already fixed them.” She turned on the TV and went to sit on the couch while Joel was pouring them something to drink.

Joel approached the couch with two glasses in his hand. He set one down on the coffee table in front of Ellie and moved to sit down on the opposite end of the couch.

The movie began to play and they silently watched for at least half an hour before Ellie began talking.

“I told her I wasn’t reading into anything and she said, ‘maybe I want you to read into it.’ What does that even mean?” She glanced at Joel, who began to chuckle. She narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s not funny.”

“Ellie,” Joel began, voice full of amusement. “The girl likes you. That much is clear.”

“Did she say those words specifically to you?” Ellie asked, forgetting about the movie.

“Why don’t you talk to her and find out?” Joel asked.

“I’m not good at this stuff,” Ellie muttered. “Forget I brought it up. Let’s just watch the movie.”

“Okay, we can do that.” Joel began to watch the movie again before turning his head to glance at Ellie. He began to say something but thought the better of it. He didn’t want to ruin things when Ellie was finally giving him a chance.

“What?” Ellie asked as she kept her eyes trained on the TV.

“Look, I have no idea what that girl’s intentions are but… I do know that she would be lucky to have you.”

Ellie should’ve appreciated the comment but suddenly her anger at Joel was at the forefront of her mind. If he had let the doctors do what they wanted, then the world would’ve been lucky to have her. “You’re such an asshole,” Ellie huffed. “I was supposed to die in that hospital. My life would’ve fucking mattered, but you took that from me.”

Joel was silent for a moment before glancing at Ellie. “If somehow the Lord gave me a second chance at that moment… I would do it all over again.”

“Yeah… I just…I don’t think I can ever forgive you for that.”

Joel felt his heart sink.

“But I would like to try.”

Joel felt relief flood through his body at the idea of him and Ellie returning to some sort of normalcy instead of walking around on egg shells like they had been. “I would like that.” He blinked away the tears that had managed to form.

“So are we going to watch this movie or what?” Ellie asked.

Joel smiled. “Sure, kiddo.”

Ellie neared her and Dina’s spot away from the prying eyes of Jackson and smiled at seeing Dina already there with a fire going. When she was finally in front of Dina, she sat down on the log opposite the girl. “Hey, how was sledding?”

“Fucking amazing,” Dina answered, brightly. “How was your movie?”

Ellie set her guitar down gently. “It was cool. We, uh… we talked about you.”

Dina quirked a brow. “Oh yeah? You spend the whole movie talking about how awesome I am?”

Ellie rolled her eyes but a smile played at her lips. “Something like that.” Ellie looked down, finding the snow to be very interesting. “I know that Joel spoke to you this morning. I was waiting for you to bring it up. He can be a little overprotective.”

Dina waved her off. “It’s fine. He’s basically your dad so it’s to be expected. Besides, I’m pretty sure he was more uncomfortable than I was.” Dina moved to sit beside Ellie. “He asked me about my intentions. Do you want to know what they are?”

Ellie kept her eyes trained on basically anything that wasn’t Dina as she shrugged her response.

Dina shook her head in amusement. “You’re adorable, you know that?” She reached out to poke Ellie in the cheek and got her hand slapped away. “Ellie,” she said, softly.

Ellie looked at Dina and her gaze fell to her lips before she looked away again. Dina gently turned her head back towards her and grinned. “Really, adorable,” Dina whispered before leaning in to close the gap between them.

Once they broke apart, Dina rested her forehead against Ellie’s. “In case you were confused about what the first kiss meant, please read all the way into this one.”

Ellie grinned. “I think I’m still a little confused. I might need another kiss.”

Dina brushed her lips against Ellie’s teasingly before pulling away. “Depends. Do I get an original Ellie song?”

Ellie chuckled. “I don’t know.”

“Come on,” Dina begged. “I just gave you the best kiss of your life. You should be serenading me.”

Ellie playfully rolled her eyes. “Best kiss? Someone thinks highly of herself.”

Dina grinned. “It was great and you know it.”

“One original song,” Ellie relented as she grabbed her guitar.

Today was definitely one of Ellie’s better days; things were getting back on track with Joel and now she had this new dynamic between her and Dina that she was excited to explore. For the first time in a long time, Ellie looked forward to the days ahead.


End file.
